Never Again
by Forgotton Angel
Summary: Most People See Their Lives Flash Before Their Eyes. Derek Saw Casey. ONESHOT


Synopsis: Most People See Their Lives Flash Before Their Eyes. Derek Saw Casey.

Short One-Shot

R&R please!!

Derek Venturi was in love. Not the silly, teenage, over in a few weeks love. The real thing. It was raw and pure and true and he knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with this woman. All because he had honestly found the perfect woman, his match in every way. His soul mate.

She was gorgeous, with long brown hair and shocking blue eyes, a sweet face and caring smile. The girl who happened to be kind and good without needing a reason to be, and she was uptight and psychotic and perfect in every way for Derek. She was his wife of five months, carrying their first baby, due in late November.

She was his step-sister, Casey.

Yes, admittedly, their relationship was unconventional. Generally, it was frowned upon in society. However, nothing could stop them, and they truly believed that the love they felt for one another could get them through the hardest of times.

They fought passionately, bitter, hateful words slipping out of their mouths before they could stop them. And then fiery burning kisses upon the other's necks, their clothes torn off before they could realize what was happening. They were caught up in one another, engulfed by the boiling hot chemistry that they had.

And they had suffered for it. Shunned by their family upon revealing the truth, only to be welcome back years after. Two long, hard years after. Sideways glances on the street, old women gossiping to one another for the simple reason that they had nothing more productive to do. Everyone loved a scandal. They were the unheard of couple. Related and married with a baby on the way.

Dirty. Disgusting. Sick. Wrong. They had heard all this and more. Derek came home to find Casey shaking with sobs because of the hateful comments she had heard. And yet, they had each other. It was enough.

They depended on each other in a way that made them sick with loss when their other half was apart. It was possibly unhealthy, the way they needed to be side by side, day and night. It worked for them.

That night, Derek drove home. He bent down low to pick up the dropped paper, and then looked up again. Too late. Far, far too late. He swerved, and the car flipped as the truck collided with it. Once. Twice. Three times. He bled and bled, and knew he wouldn't be saved. He would die in this car.

Casey was the only thing running through his head. Beautiful, wonderful, brilliant Casey. She had deserved better than him. He'd always thought so. Not once did a day pass that he did not appreciate the face that she had chosen him. And now he would die. His baby girl. His beautiful, unborn, baby girl. He would never know her. slowly, painfully, he pulled his torn arm up, cell phone in hand. He dialed her number, and waited. Waited for the sound of her voice before he died. He needed to hear her once more, and he would be fine.

[Casey

Casey Venturi answered the phone on the second ring. Glancing at the caller ID, she chirped cheerfully, "Der? Babe? You'll never believe it. They accepted my book! They actually accepted my book!"

Casey had been drafting, writing, rewriting, revising, and rewriting again to form an eight hundred page novel, all on her very own. She had always been taught to write what you know. She wrote of being abandoned, unaccepted. She wrote of a love like no other. She wrote of the love between a boy and a girl, in a world where love was love, no matter between whom. The last part was not of what she knew, but of what she wished she would someday know. A world that might never accept her and her husband.

Derek's voice returned, raspy and uneven. He sounded on the verge of tears. "Case. I need you to listen to me, okay? I don't know how much time I have. Casey, I'm hurt. Bad."

Her world shattered.

[Derek

"What do you _mean_?" She knew what he meant. Knew it, but could not accept it. He heard the sobs wracking her body, and it pained him worse than any physical pain he had ever known. Tears raced down his cheeks, fast and hot, and he held on tightly to the last feeling of life he had.

"I'm going to d-die." His voice broke on the last word; he could barely get the sentence out. He could feel his voice leaving him, his system shutting down slowly. "Casey, I love you. With all my heart. I want you to be happy. Find our daughter a father. Move on from me. Please. Be happy."

It was all he wanted of her. All he would ask. Every second cost him a painful breath. He wheezed into the phone. An image of her face was imprinted in his mind, and he could think of nothing else.

"I love you, so much. Don't leave me, please. You'll be fine, I promise. Just wait until the ambulance gets there, Derek. Stay with me. DEREK! _Derek_!"

[Casey

The silence was deafening. Shock. Then the overwhelming pain. He was gone. He would never bring her daisies on his way home, never kiss her lips again. Never. He was gone.

And so her world ended, and Casey Venturi knew. It no longer mattered that her husband was related to her. Nothing mattered anymore, and it never would again. Derek Micheal Venturi was dead, and he was never coming home to her again.

A/N: well, that was more depressing than I planned. This story actually was meant to go in an entirely different direction. It basically wrote itself. Oh well. Review, and let me know what you think !


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